Asian markets slipped Wednesday despite higher oil prices, with Samsung Electronics shares falling after the company said it would permanently stop selling its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone.
Samsung (Korea Stock Exchange: 593'A-KR) stock dropped 0.65 percent, recovering from losses of more than 3.3 percent earlier, to 1,535,000 won ($1366) each, as the market weighed the impact on the South Korean tech giant's overall business .
The Kospi (Korea Stock Exchange: .KS11) finished up 0.09 percent, or 1.8 points, at 2,033.73, after wavering between negative and positive territory throughout the session.
Shares of major South Korean telecos were mixed; SK Telecom (Korea Stock Exchange: 1767-KR) was down 0.23, KT (Korea Stock Exchange: 3020-KR) was up 1.11 percent and Lg Uplus fell 1.3 percent.
Australia's ASX 200 (ASX: .AXJO) closed down 0.09 percent, or 5.202 points, at 5,474.6. The benchmark index was weighed by its energy subindex, which fell 0.93 percent, and its material component, which dropped 1.06 percent.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 (Nihon Keizai Shinbun: .N225) index closed down 1.09 percent, or 184.76 points, at 16,840, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index (Hong Kong Stock Exchange: .HSI) shed 0.95 percent in Asian afternoon trade.
Mainland Chinese markets were also lower; the Shanghai composite (Shanghai Stock Exchange: .SSEC) finished 0.2 percent, or 6.121 points, at 3,059.129, while the Shenzhen composite (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJSZ) closed up 0.168 percent, or 3.433 points, at 2,047.119.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.28 percent to $50.93 a barrel, above its U.S. settlement price of $50.79, while Brent was up 0.42 percent at $52.62. The global oil benchmark settled at $52.41.
Despite the higher crude prices, shares in Asian oil majors were negative. Australia's Santos (ASX: STO-AU) was down 2.54 percent, while Oil Search (ASX: OSH-AU) shed 1.96 percent, Japan's Inpex (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 1605.T-JP) was down 0.45 percent, while South Korea's S-Oil (Korea Stock Exchange: 1095-KR) was lower by 3.37 percent and China Petroleum (Shanghai Stock Exchange: 28-SZ) was down 0.8 percent.
Crude prices had slipped during the Tuesday U.S. session from one-year highs, amid rising doubts that the production cut agreement by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would help reduce the supply glut.
Investors will likely look ahead to the release of the Federal Open Market Committee minutes from the September meeting, which are expected to show an unusual division in the rate-setting committee. Three of the FOMC's 10 voting members opposed the final statement released in September , which noted that Fed officials felt it prudent to keep its interest rate target at 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent.